


I choose you

by syriala



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Crossover, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jiang FengMian's A+ parenting, Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24893437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syriala/pseuds/syriala
Summary: Jiang Cheng is still crying as he runs through Lotus Pier, looking to hide away somewhere where is parents or his new brother won’t find him. His little feet take him down a pier far in the back of Lotus Pier, one he’s never been to before. He knowns he’s not supposed to go there on his own, but he doesn’t care right now. He just needs to get away.His father made him send all his pokemon away. His Growlithe, and Houndour and Lillipup are all gone now and just the thought makes new tears appear on Jiang Cheng’s face.
Relationships: Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Jiāng Fēngmián, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Yú Zǐyuān
Comments: 43
Kudos: 404





	I choose you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Renazeros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renazeros/gifts).



> This is entirely renazerosart's fault because of [this gorgeous piece of tiny Jiang Cheng and his pokemon](https://renazerosart.tumblr.com/post/621645198886322176/so-i-saw-this-post-and-instead-of-drawing)

“No,” Jiang Cheng chokes out, barely able to breathe with what his father just said.

“Jiang Cheng,” Jiang Fengmian sighs, clearly already done with this conversation. “I don’t want to hear any more about this. You’re going to give me your Eevee now.”

“No,” Jiang Cheng screams again, and he cradles the single remaining pokeball he still has close. “You can’t take it from me as well.”

He’s aware that he’s barely understandable between all his sobs, but he doesn’t care. His father already took his other three pokemon and Eevee is all Jiang Cheng has left.

He won’t allow him to take it, too.

“Don’t be difficult now,” Jiang Fengmian says and extends his hand again. “Give it here! It will evolve into something that looks too much like a dog and Wei Ying is afraid of dogs.”

“Then I simply won’t let it evolve!” Jiang Cheng sobs out, but Jiang Fengmian shakes his head.

“If you don’t evolve it, then there’s no use in you having it. Hand over the ball!”

“I won’t!”

“Jiang Wanyin!” Jiang Fengmian bellows but Jiang Cheng continues to shake his head.

“I hate you!” Jiang Cheng yells at him and then turns his glare onto Wei Wuxian who is covering behind Jiang Fengmian’s legs. “And I hate you, too!”

He doesn’t wait for a reply, he simply turns around and runs away from his father and his new brother, his single remaining pokeball still cradled close to his chest.

Jiang Cheng is still crying as he runs through Lotus Pier, looking to hide away somewhere where is parents or his new brother won’t find him. His little feet take him down a pier far in the back of Lotus Pier, one he’s never been to before. He knowns he’s not supposed to go there on his own, but he doesn’t care right now. He just needs to get away.

His father made him send all his pokemon away. His Growlithe, and Houndour and Lillipup are all gone now and just the thought makes new tears appear on Jiang Cheng’s face.

The Growlithe was the first pokemon Jiang Cheng caught all by himself and he was so wonderfully cuddly and always warm; a perfect pillow to sleep on. His Houndour looked so scary all the time, and not many kids dared to play with it, but to Jiang Cheng it was always the sweetest, licking his face and wanting to play. The Lillipup he caught last, and it was still so damn tiny that Jiang Cheng could carry it around by himself and it was always excited to go new places.

And now they are all gone!

A new sob wrecks Jiang Cheng’s small frame as he runs down the pier and he hates his father and the new brother he has now.

It’s all Wei Wuxian’s fault, being afraid of Jiang Cheng’s pokemon as if any of them had ever hurt Wei Wuxian and now Jiang Cheng was all alone again.

Those three were the first friends Jiang Cheng made all by himself and they were already so well trained, too! His father used to say that the Growlithe would surely grow up to be a very fearsome and strong Arcanine one day, and now Jiang Cheng would never see it happen.

Because his dad forced him send his precious friends away, and for what? For some tears from a boy they all only knew for a single day!

Jiang Cheng sobs again, and when he stumbles over his own feet, because he’s so busy crying, he sits down right where he stands and wails.

It’s not fair! Not fair at all! Wei Wuxian brought his own Nickit and of course he is allowed to keep it, too, even though Jiang Cheng isn’t fond of that pokemon. But Wei Wuxian had taken one look at Jiang Cheng’s Lillipup and started crying and Jiang Cheng’s father had picked him up and ordered Jiang Cheng to send his pokemon away.

And Jiang Cheng had obeyed right until his dad demanded he hands over Eevee as well. Jiang Cheng won’t give up his Eevee. He will rather leave before he gets rid of that, too!

But now the Eevee is the only pokemon Jiang Cheng has left, after he trained so diligently with the others and new tears stream down his face at the memory, even as he puts the pokeball with Eevee safely into his pouch.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t even want to catch any other pokemon anymore! He had his favourites chosen and now that they are gone he doesn’t see the sense in being a pokemon trainer anymore. His Eevee was never meant to fight, even though it’s really good but Jiang Cheng hates sending it into fights.

It’s so tiny and so fluffy, it shouldn’t have to fight.

Growlithe loved to fight; it always got all excited when it was allowed to, even if it was just a practice match and Jiang Cheng nearly passes out he’s crying so hard again.

He hates it here. He hates his father and his new brother and his way too empty pouch on his belt and he just wants to leave this place!

So Jiang Cheng stumbles up on his feet and makes his way further down the pier, barely able to see anything through his tears, but he’s reasonably sure that he truly doesn’t know this pier. He can almost hear his mother say he’s not allowed to go to this one on his own, and it only makes his steps more determined, because his parents are _wrong_ and he will no longer listen to them.

He stumbles further down the pier, but it’s dark outside and he can’t see very well with the tears still streaming down his face, and so he’s not really all that surprised when he suddenly steps into thin air.

Jiang Cheng lets out a startled scream and he tries to fling his pouch onto the pier because he doesn’t want Eevee to drown as well, or worse, be forever stuck inside the pokeball, but before he can untangle the pouch from his belt he already hits water.

Jiang Cheng can swim—he’s not even bad at it—but he’s being caught by surprise and the water is cold and his clothes are very heavy once they get all wet, and soon he’s sinking to the bottom of the lake.

He’s pretty sure he’s still crying but his tears get lost inside the water and Jiang Cheng can hear his mother’s voice telling him again he’s not allowed to go to this pier.

His parents won’t even be sad that he drowned; they’ll say it’s his own fault and besides. His father already brought home a new son. It’s not like they still need Jiang Cheng anyway.

Still, Jiang Cheng struggles to get back to the surface, mostly because Eevee is still trapped in the pokeball and Jiang Cheng wants better for his last remaining pokemon.

But for all the he tries to get back to the surface, he barely makes any movement upwards; instead, he sinks lower and lower.

His gaze is already going a little bit hazy around the edges when suddenly a dark shade approaches him.

Jiang Cheng can do nothing but blink as the huge black shadow turns into a huge black whale; the only visible spots on it are it’s white underbelly and the white dots on the top of its head.

Jiang Cheng tries to smile at the new pokemon, but when he loses a whole lot of air for his troubles he stops.

Suddenly the water around him starts to glow as the red lines on the pokemon start to shine and Jiang Cheng is kind of scared to see just how big this new pokemon really is. Still, it hasn’t eaten him yet, so Jiang Cheng reaches out to try and pat the whale on his head.

He doesn’t quite make it, but a hum fills the water and Jiang Cheng likes to think that the pokemon knows what he tried to do anyway.

Jiang Cheng is just about ready to fall into darkness, when a whole swarm of fish suddenly show up, surround him and gently push him up and up towards the surface.

Jiang Cheng is still losing consciousness rapidly, but the surface gets closer and closer, the full moon illuminating the water enough that Jiang Cheng can finally see the swarm of Magikarps that came to his rescue.

He wants to reach out to pet them as a thank you, but before he can do that, he’s violently flung onto the pier, where he lands hard on his side.

Jiang Cheng coughs, desperately tries to get some air into his lungs, but it takes him a long time before his breathing calms down again.

As soon as he doesn’t feel like he’s drowning anymore, he scoots over the pier to peer into the dark water below, and he’s relieved to see the Magikarps are still there.

He didn’t say thank you yet, so he reaches out for them, and startles when a Magikarp presses into his hand.

Jiang Cheng laughs, because it clearly wants to be petted, and once it’s satisfied with the amounts of pets it received, a new Magikarp takes its place.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t know how much time he spends like this, but the swarm seems to be a big one, and all of them seem to want some pets.

“Thank you for saving me,” Jiang Cheng whispers down to the water and the Magikarp he’s petting right now pushes into his hand even more, before it playfully nips at his fingers.

“That tickles,” Jiang Cheng giggles but he wriggles his fingers some more.

He plays with the Magikarps for a short while, before a shiver wrecks his body, and he remembers that his clothes are wet.

“I should probably go back,” Jiang Cheng whispers, even though his heart is falling at the prospect.

He doesn’t want to go see his parents. They are probably only going to make him send Eevee away again.

At that thought Jiang Cheng startles, because he forgot all about Eevee for a moment!

Jiang Cheng scrambles to his feet, his fingers fiddling with the string at the pouch until he can open it and he hurries to get Eevee’s pokeball out of it.

He flings it onto the pier, watching nervously as Eevee appears in a flash of light, and then he sinks to his knees when he realizes Eevee is dry and still safe.

“I thought you drowned,” Jiang Cheng sobs out just as Eevee flings itself into Jiang Cheng’s arms, and they stay like that for a very long time.

In the end Eevee pulls away first, only to traipse over to the edge of the pier, to stare into the water, where the Magikarps are still swimming close under the surface.

“They saved me,” Jiang Cheng mutters to Eevee as he strokes a hand over its back.

Eevee makes a noise, before it starts to nose at the pouch still hanging at Jiang Cheng’s belt.

“What do you want?” Jiang Cheng mumbles, reaching down to push Eevee away, but when a pokeball tumbles out, Jiang Cheng freezes.

Eevee pushes the ball closer to the edge of the pier, its intention clear now, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t dare to move.

If he catches all of these Magikarps, his parents will just make him get rid of them again, he’s sure of it.

But Eevee is insistent and when the ball tumbles over the edge, Jiang Cheng flings himself forwards to catch it.

He only has a set number of balls—his parents told him again and again that he needs to be responsible with them—and he’s not sure he even has enough for all the Magikarps swimming around. But Jiang Cheng would feel bad for only catching a few and not all of them and so he pulls out all the balls he has.

He lines them up on the pier and as if the Magikarps know what he wants to do, they each choose a ball to swim in front of.

It turns out Jiang Cheng does have enough—he even would have two left—and that is all he needs. He moves down the line, throwing a ball at the Magikarp that’s already waiting for it, and none of them break free of the pokeball even once.

In the end, Jiang Cheng caught about twenty Magikarps and it makes him more than happy to know that he has this many pokemon. But as soon as he thinks that, he feels bad again, because Magikarps are not meant to be kept in a pokeball.

They are supposed to swim free in the water and so he releases all of them again.

Jiang Cheng isn’t sure if they are surprised by his actions or if they just generally look as surprised as this, but when they start to get agitated, he leans over the edge of the pier again.

“I don’t want to keep you trapped,” he tells them, reaching out to pat the nearest ones again. “You’re still mine, but you can swim here, okay?” he asks them, not really expecting an answer, but all of them fling themselves out of the water, jumping high into the air.

Jiang Cheng takes this as an enthusiastic yes.

He watches them play in the water a few minutes longer, before Eevee starts to get restless and tugs him towards Lotus Pier again.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jiang Cheng mumbles, and gets to his feet. “I’ll come by regularly to feed you, okay?” he promises the Magikarps and with one last wistful look he turns his back on them.

He doesn’t really want to go back to his parents, but he’s cold and wet and he simply wants to curl up in bed and not think about his missing pokemon for a while.

There are already tears gathering in his eyes again, but he swallows them down. His parents will be mad enough at him for running away; no need to make them even more upset because he’s crying.

Jiang Cheng tries to sneak into his room without being detected but his mother is already waiting for him, her Ariados hovering behind her.

“Where have you been?” she hisses as soon as she sees him and Jiang Cheng shrinks into his still wet clothes while Eevee presses against his legs.

“Out,” he gives back, getting some of that stubbornness from before back, but when his mother only glares at him, he tries to make himself smaller than he already is.

“Please don’t make me give Eevee away, too,” he mumbles and jerks when Zidian cracks to life on his mother’s finger.

“Don’t be stupid,” she admonishes him. “That bastard boy will hardly take everything from you,” she says and then flicks her hair back.

“Where have you been,” she demands to know again and Jiang Cheng swallows heavily before he looks out over the lake.

“On one of the piers,” he says, as he prays that she won’t ask any further questions. “Did you know there’s a huge swarm of Magikarps in the lake?” he asks and he’s excited again, because he has all these new friends now. “They are my friends!”

“Unbelievable,” his mother scoffs and then pins him with a look. “At least you only befriended them and didn’t waste your pokeballs on them. Magikarps are the single most useless pokemon you can find, so don’t waste too much of your time on them.”

Jiang Cheng blinks at his mother, because to him they are not useless. They saved his life and wanted to be petted and they wanted to be caught by him— _by him_ —but he swallows all of that down.

“I understand,” he whispers and bows to her.

“Good. Now, off you go. Take those wet clothes off and don’t come crying when you caught a cold for those useless fish.”

Jiang Cheng bows his head under her words, and itches around her to disappear into his room.

“She doesn’t understand,” Jiang Cheng tells Eevee as he tries to take his wet clothes off. “They are not useless,” he says with determination and Eevee clearly agrees with him, because it presses close again.

“They are my friends.”

And Jiang Cheng will take the best care of his friends, he promises himself that. What happened today with Growlithe, Houndour and Lillipup was the worst thing that ever happened to Jiang Cheng and he will not let it happen again.

From today on, he’ll protect his pokemon better.


End file.
